Motor truck body



C. T. FALK ET AL Jan. 24, 1950 MOTOR TRUCK BODY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 3, 1946 .Jan. 24,1950 c. T. FALK ETAL MOTOR TRUCK BODY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 3, 1946 [in awn? CfidrZzsZTe ZK mi Jase 71/144 122% Patented Jan. 24, 1950 2,495,447 MOTOR TRUCK Bony Charles T. Falk andJ-oseph :M.1Falk, Kansas City, .Mo.

Application August 3, 1946,1S erial No. 688,236

This invention relates to truck bodies and has for one of its objects to produce a rack type body in the form of shelving or compartments for bottled goods held in trays or containers of a dozen or so bottles, the chief object of the invention bein to produce such construction having doors controlling each compartment, said doors being so mounted that when in open position they are entirely out of sight and produce an open truck, but when swung to closed position provide a totally enclosed body which 'will protect the load against pilferage or freezing in cold weather and makes the entire sides of the truck available for advertising purposes.

Another object is to produce a door mountingconstruction of such nature that the doors may 'be opened or closed without introducing a traflic tact with adjacent parts that might damage the finish or the outer faces of the doors and ruin any advertising display that may appear thereon. A further object of the invention is to produce a door structure of the type described in which the door and cooperating parts are provided with extension flanges or blind stops intersecting the cracks or spaces which must be left around the doors when closed, so that vision transversely through the truck body is prevented.

With the general objects named in view and others as will hereinafter appear, the invention consists in certain novel and useful features of construction and organization of parts as hereinafter described and claimed; and in order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a fragmental side elevation of a truck body embodying the invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged horizontal section through one compartment of the .truck with the door in open position.

Figure 3 is a face view of the construction shown in Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a fragmental broken cross section through a door and the adjacent parts of the 1 Claim. (Cl. 296-24) compartment .as the door appears in its closed position, the door being shown dotted just prior to :being slid back to open position.

Figure 5 is a fragmental section on the line =V--V of Figure 4.

In the said drawings, where like reference characters identify corresponding parts in all of the figures, the truck chassis carries a series of spaced wertica'l uprights I .(see Figure 2), forming end supports for a series of horizontal angle irons 2 running longitudinally of the truck closely adjacent its sides, the horizontal and vertical legs-of said angle irons respectively forming parting strips between adjacent compartments and blind stops for abutment by the lower inner edge of the doors when closed. The successive inner rows of vertical uprights I carry other supporting angles 3 and 4 running longitudinally of the truck body. This construction is duplicated on the opposite side of the truck chassis so that the vehicle may be loaded or unloaded from either side.

The bottom or shelving of each compartment maybe solid but is illustrated as comprising a series of spaced horizontal members welded or otherwise secured to the longitudinally extending angles of the framework, said supports preferably being madeoI a sheet of metal, see Figure '3, crimped to provide a vertical separating "rib .5 and a pair .of rails or ribs 6 on opposite sides thereof, to receive the bottoms of the cases and permit them to be easily slid into or removed-from position.

Spaced below each of the angles 2 of each compartment a, sufficient distance to allow slight clearance of the underlyin door when open and extending transversely of the truck body, are guide angles or flanges 1 (see Figure 3), which act as supports and. guides for a movable channel equalizer bar 8 and the door 9 when in open horizontal position. The doors 9 (see Figure 4), have their bottom edges upturned as at [0 for stifiening purposes, and their top edges terminating in an upstanding flange I! constituting a stop terminating short of the ends of the doors as shown in Figure 4 to prevent vision entirely through the truck when the doors are closed, by bridging the crack or space between the lower faces of the overlying angle iron 2 and the door when in closed position, said flange terminating short of the ends of the doors since if they extend too far they would interfere with the guides I.

Welded or otherwise secured within each open spaces which would otherwise appear at these points when the doors are closed. Positioned at the rear of the compartments of the truck are fixed equalizer bars I8 carried by horizontal members 3 secured to uprights -I of the truck framework, said fixed equalizer bar being shown as of right angle shape in cross section. Welded or otherwise secured to corresponding ends of each equalizer bar are clip members 19 snugly receiving grooved rollers 20 to retain said rollers against upward or downward movement in service. The rollers are respectively pivoted at 21a and. 22a to their respective cross-over straps or lazy ton arms 21 and 22, the other ends of said straps being fixedly pivoted at 211) and 22b to the opposite ends of said equalizer bars respectively, see Figures 2 and 4, so that said straps move from full, door open position, to dotted, door closed position. To assist the operator in opening the doors of the compartments, the lazy tong straps are centrally pivoted together and secured to said pivot is a pull strap 23 having its opposite end attached to retractile springs 24 secured to the horizontal angle 4 at the rear of each compartment.

In order to prevent the outer or finished surface of the door from dragging on the overlying parts, each end of the door fits in rather heavy U-shaped channels or stiffeners 26. The inner leg of each of such U-members is extended outwardly and downwardly to form ears 2'! which provide guide slots snugly receiving the edge of the guides l and prevent the door from bouncing or being raised up oiT of such guides. The ears 2! terminate short of the top of the door to avoid interference with the hinge mounting thereof.

In order to close or bridge the vertical cracks at the ends of the doors when closed, see Figure 2, the outer uprights are provided with vertically extending beads 28 constituting blind stops. The construction is finished by filled strips 29 welded or otherwise secured so that the outer side of the truck body is substantially plane or flush and presents an attractive appearance when the doors are closed, as shown in Figure 1.

From the above description and drawings it will be apparent that we have produced a construction embodying all of the features of advantage set forth as desirable, and while we have described and illustrated the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that we reserve the right to all changes within the spirit and scope of the appended claim.

We claim:

In a truck body the combination of two rows of uprights spaced longitudinally of the truck and extending transversely thereof, each row comprising a plurality of uprights, a plurality of pairs of vertically spaced door guides, one guide of each pair being carried by one row of each row of uprights with each pair of guides in the same horizontal plane, a door for each pair of guides adapted to move from vertical closed position to horizontal open position and guided and supported b said guides in its open position, a pair of equalizer bars, one car fixed to the uprights and the other bar being hingedly connected to the door, lazy-tong straps connecting said bars, on corresponding end of the lazy-tong straps being respectively pivoted on a pivot fixed to the bars and the other corresponding end of the lazy-tong straps having a pivoted connection to the bars and being shiftable longitudinally of the bars, and an car at each end of the doors i" or engaging the underside of the guides when the door is in horizontal open position to hold the door against vertical movement.

CHARLES T. FALK. JOS. M. F'ALK.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 715,243 Casler Dec. 9, 1902 791,498 Record June 6, 1905 1,099,361 Hartland June 9, 1914 1,124,570 Woltz Jan. 12, 1915 1,348,680 Woltz Aug. 3, 1920 1,561,290 Wicke Nov. 10, 1925 1,757,955 Dautrick May 13, 1930 1,829,936 Koenig Nov. 3, 1931 1,918,475 Lassinsky July 18, 1933 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 10,003 Great Britain Mar. 15, 1906 A. D. 1905 

